Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (franchise)
From Transformers Wiki
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Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers (戦え! 超ロボット生命体 トランスフォーマー Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimeitai Transformer) is the ostentatious title given to the Generation 1 franchise in Japan. Unique amongst international Generation 1 franchises, this line was overseen by Takara directly. As such it received yearly branding refreshes and with them various exclusive products and fiction well into the 1990s.
The franchise comprises:
- A toyline, consisting of most of the toys released by Hasbro as well as quite a few that weren't once the Japanese line outlived the western one. The omissions are, unsurprisingly, largely the toys not sourced from Takara.
- Various cartoons.
- Various comics, primarily run in TV Magazine.
- A series of story pages, which ran alongside the comic and provided prose adventures with two page magazine spreads.
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers
The subtitle-less first year of the of the Japanese franchise was released in 1985, one year after its launch in Hasbro markets. The various aspects of F!SRLTF combined Hasbro's 1984 and 1985 products into one large line.
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010
| This article is about the TakaraTomy franchise named for the in-fiction year. For the subtitle-less Hasbro toyline released in the real-world year, see Transformers (2010 toyline). |
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Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010 (戦え!超ロボット生命体 トランスフォーマー 2010 Tatakae! Chō Robotto Seimeitai Transformers Ni-Zero-Ichi-Zero) is the title given to the 1986 Transformers media in Japan, including the third season of the American cartoon. It was the first instance of what would become Takara's standard method of operation—the annual rebranding of the franchise with a new subtitle. It accompanied the fictional shift of the animated series from the present day to the 21st century, but while the original American version of the series took place over 2005/06, the Japanese version advanced the setting to 2010, hence the new name. This rebranding was not entirely followed by the toyline, which only used the 2010 branding sporadically, while toys like Metroplex or the Combatrons received "Scramble City" branding to accompany the all new straight-to-home-video special released a bit ahead of the new season.
Transformers: The Headmasters
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Transformers: The Headmasters (トランスフォーマー ザ★ヘッドマスターズ) was the first Japanese-exclusive Transformers sub-franchise, released in 1987. Following on from Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010 in 1986, The Headmasters began the period of distinction between American and Japanese products that would continue throughout the rest of Generation 1.
The Headmasters' story greatly expounded upon the toys and characters solely supported by the cartoon's concluding special The Rebirth in the west, featuring fairly dramatic deviations in characterization and dropping the Nebulos angle entirely. Most idiosyncratically, the franchise contained the backdoor pilot for Beastformers, Takara's version of the toyline launched as Battle Beasts in Hasbro markets the previous year.
Transformers: Super-God Masterforce
| This article is about the franchise. For the in-fiction technology used by its human cast, see Masterforce (technology). |
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Transformers: Super-God Masterforce (トランスフォーマー 超神マスターフォース Toransufōmā: Chōjin Masutāfōsu) is the Transformers sub-franchise in Japan for 1988. Breaking radically from previous series, Super-God Masterforce featured all-new characters and locations, dropping many of the futuristic elements and focusing on human characters that bonded with robot bodies.
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory
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Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Victory (戦え!超ロボット生命体 トランスフォーマー
Transformers: Zone
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Transformers: Zone (トランスフォーマー
Zone's brief story saw Dai Atlas and his Powered Masters do battle with the ghostly Violengiguar as he commanded pretty much every big ticket item from the past five years in a desperate all-out attempt to sell kids on the new heroes in twenty minutes and change.
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Return of Convoy
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Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Return of Convoy (戦え!超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマーリターン・オブ・コンボイ) was the fifth Japanese-exclusive Transformers sub-franchise, released in 1991. It received even less media support than its predecessor, eschewing animation completely. Return of Convoy continued the storyline of the animated continuity, picking up where Zone left off. The story was told through a single comic issue and a series of story pages.
The Return of Convoy storyline went back to basics, revolving around the resurrection of Optimus Prime as Star Convoy by the Battlestars and their battle against Dark Nova and the similarly revived Super Megatron.
Developed by Masumi Kaneda, the original subtitle for this stage of the franchise was Dai Ginga Seidan (大銀河星団, "Galactic Stars").[1] Initially planned with Big Bang as the Autobot leader, development decided on "Star Convoy", at this point a new character separate from Convoy. At some point, the title was changed to The Battlestars (ザ・バトルスターズ), which the comic and story pages still retain. Eventually, the plot was finalized as the resurrection of Convoy, hence the "Return of Convoy" branding used by the toyline.[2][3]
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Operation Combination
| This article is about the franchise. For the Shattered Glass tactical initiative named after it, see Operation: Combination (SG). |
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Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers: Operation Combination (戦え! 超ロボット生命体トランスフォーマー 合体大作戦 Tatakae! Chō Robot Seimei Tai Transformers Gattai Dai Sakusen) was the sub-franchise that ran throughout 1992. It marks the final vintage Generation 1 series released in Japan, as the line was cancelled following Operation Combination, not to be revived until 1995 and G-2. Operation Combination lacked even comic support, continuing the story of the animated series exclusively through story pages.
Operation Combination's plot saw Decepticon High Regent Scrash send Battle Gaia and the Jet Corps to plunder Earth's energy. A new team of Autobots composed of the eponymous quintet of combiners and the Road Corps are deployed by Star Convoy to defend the planet.
Legacy
The precedent of the latter installments of the Japanese Generation 1 franchise, that entire waves of product could be supported via the continuation of the cartoon's story through a comic or a couple story pages, had a peculiar effect on Japanese Transformers media going forward. The story pages of Japan's Generation 2 franchise picked up right where Operation Combination left off in 1995, and the storyline of the Japanese Generation 1 cartoon never really stopped from there. The resulting sprawling exquisite corpse attached to TakaraTomy's Generation 1 and Beast Wars flavored products continues to this very day, and has become the largest continuous setting in the entire Transformers brand.
References
- ↑ The Japanese title is actually a combination of astronomy terms—ginga (銀河, "galaxy") and seidan (星団, "star cluster"). Dai (大) generally means "great" but is used as an intensifier in titles. Further, ginga seidan (銀河星団) has been used to refer to open clusters. However, the title is also playing with the meanings of the individual kanji to refer to a group of Autobots.
- ↑ "1987-90年は脱コンボイ時代。1991年の『TFザ・バトルスターズ(原題/大銀河星団)』も最初は新総司令官「ビッグバン」でした。
次のスターコンボイも当初は初代、ロディマスに続く新デザインの3代目新コンボイ。やがて玩具展開の『リターン・オブ・コンボイ』と連動し初代がパワーアップして復活します。"—Masumi Kaneda, Twitter, 2021/11/10 - ↑ "『'91トランスフォーマー 大銀河星団＝ザ・バトルスターズ』の資料(序文透けて読めます？)。左が新総司令官ビッグバン。右が第三のコンボイ＝新総司令官スターコンボイ(prototype)。この後更に初代コンボイ復活の物語に修正されました。一連の流れを繋げてストーリー化すると面白いかもしれませんね。"—Masumi Kaneda, Twitter, 2021/11/19
